This should amuse at least some of you, and help me, so why not ask?
Like the title says:
1: is there a specific direction a connecting rod must be installed in (not in regards to the piston, obviously) ? Well, big end down and so forth, but is there a "front" and "back" on, say, a Chevy Big Block con rod?
I distinctly remember reading about a fellow who slapped a hemi together with one rod "on backwards", promptly killing the mill a minute or so after first startup. I now assume he turned the piston backwards in the bore, but I felt like making sure considering there's about 6000$ in the engine right now...

2: what are the shims/washers that go underneath the springs on an aluminium head called, and where do I get them? ("077" CBB heads).
I bought a pair of "bare" heads and did not realize these were needed. Figure most of the springs'll chew through the heads in short order without them. Somebody told me I need a "cap" and then a shim on top of it.

3: how big would the combustion chambers roughly be on .020" milled "077" heads with 118cc's to begin with?

Feeling really smart right about now, but I guess pride needs to be swallowed now and then

Yes, rods need to installed properly and they can easily be installed backwards. The crank shaft has two rods on each "throw". The chamfered side of the rod has to go towards the end of the throw because the bearing surface has a radiused "fillet" where it blends with the unmachined part of the crank. If installing the rod prperly positions the valve reliefs of the piston in the wrong location, then the piston has been pressed onto the rod backwards. It has happened to me and is not uncommon.

Any auto machine shop should have steel shims for valve springs of various diameters and thicknesses. I do believe that you can buy "cups" that are machined with a recess to retain the spring. They might be available from Doug Herbert Performance Parts(http://www.dougherbert.com/camsvalve...age=2&sort=4a).

Hard to say what milling the head has done to the combustion chamber size. You could make a guess by going to the Keith Black Pistons website (http://kb-silvolite.com/calc.php). They have calculators there that will help. You could get an idea by plugging in various thicknesses for headgasket volumes.

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